The decade that followed 9/11 witnessed a radical regression of communal energies, forcing us to live strictly in individual spheres; the fear and control society in the guise of a war on terror, the tendency of nation-states to impose their ideological agendas onto everyone and everything under their control and the conflicts and collaborations of a global consumerist economy that urges the rapid privatization of public goods have all taken a toll on the common values of human societies around the Globe. The commons that we need to regain entail a broad spectrum. They range from ecological unbalances, which result from the privatization of natural resources, to the ‘de facto’ privatization of judicial systems, which has led to the degradation of a justice that is common to all.

Meanwhile, the ever-popularizing digital media, beginning with the Internet itself as a common resource, has been a major source of inspiration in revitalizing the idea of the commons. More specifically, the capacities offered by new media have helped to re-understand that information is a “common” as well as the right to access information.

amber’12 selects as its theme “Paratactic Commons”: Can digital commons be an alternative platform to launch a political system whose main aim is sharing, transparency, and freedom of expression? What can we learn from free software’s, copyleft movements, peer-2-peer systems, the logic of open source, and creative commons? Could the [digital] commons help for the creation of another form of economy and ecology? Could humans [we?]share their common resources rather than exploit them? What kind of paratactic artistic strategies could digital commons consist of?

amber ’12 invites artists, designers, academics, researchers and others interested parties to take part in “Paratactic Commons” for re-thinking the commons through the perspective of art and free, creative, and participatory thought.

For a through rethinking of “Paratactic commons” we invite researchers, thinkers and artists from relevant disciplines to submit an abstract of 500 words max. The abstract topics can consist of (but are not limited to) the following subject headings:
-open data
-transparency
-digital commons and privacy
-digital activism
-data visualization
-re-thinking globalism
-citizen participation and empowerment
-legal issues, i.e., copy right, copy left

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